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UK PM called on Pfizer deal

British Prime Minister David Cameron is seeking to deflect criticism he's been working too closely with US drugmaker Pfizer in its proposed $US106 billion ($A114.69 billion) takeover of the Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca.

With fears growing that British jobs will be lost and the nation's science base undermined in the potential merger, Cameron denied in a BBC interview on Sunday he was favouring the American company.

When asked on The Andrew Marr Show whether he was engaging more closely with Pfizer, Cameron insisted it wasn't the case.

"Ministers were talking to AstraZeneca before anyone spoke to Pfizer," he said.

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Pfizer has made three offers for AstraZeneca since January - all of which have been rejected.

AstraZeneca says Pfizer's latest bid of $US106 billion in cash and stock undervalues the company and that a takeover would disrupt its work on a potentially lucrative pipeline of new drugs.

The proposed deal would be the largest foreign takeover of a British company, and Cameron has faced political pressure from the Labour opposition to ensure the deal is in the public interest.

But he says while he wants to examine the deal, he doesn't believe Britain should "put up the drawbridge" to outside investment.

"Britain benefits massively by being an economy open to overseas investment," he said.

Pfizer has said it would move its official domicile - but not its corporate offices - to London. That would reduce Pfizer's income tax rate, because US rates are considerably higher than in the United Kingdom.

The American company has also made a series of promises to Cameron, pledging in a letter to keep at least 20 per cent of the combined company's research and development staff in the UK.

The commitments will come under scrutiny this week when Pfizer CEO Ian Read faces the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee for a hearing on the potential deal, which comes amid a spate of mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry.